how often do you feel your life is in danger whilst road cycling

after reading anagallis_arvensis's thread I too am both pissed off with the lack of prosecutions for cars hitting cyclists and the number of near misses I experience whislt out cycling.
we have the right to cycle on all roads except motorways and cars must be encouraged to share the road, it is useless to explain the error of their ways as, you either get verbally abused,"you dont pay road tax"(it never goes down well when i say well actually I have two vehicles and therefore probably pay more than you!) or they deliberatly drive at you/swerve towards you.
these 3 default behaviours happened on Sunday on a long road ride after I said "excuse me would you mind leaving a bit more space when overtaking cyclists" to a particular driver.Unfortunately I dont have a photograpic memory or I would have reported the driver to the police. A number of other near misses happened with other vehicles just because they could be bothered to wait a few more seconds to overtake or even when they had pleanty of space still left less than a foot.
I have had enough!

I contacted the minister for road safety today jim.fitzpatrick@dft.gsi.gov.uk and would encourage all to do so both directly and via your local MP(the official way to do things)
we need a road safety campign to encourage drivers of other vehicles to share the road and give cyclists pleanty of room
I have been riding for more than 30 years and in my experience drivers are becoming less and less considerate of cyclists

People are becoming less considerate, full stop. And driving a car has increasingly been adopted as a means by which to vent general frustration, bully and show off.

I've given up remonstraing with the idiots in their tin boxes - I tend to use a withering look and a slow shake of the head to show my disapproval.

However, with the increasing number of people on bikes (whether fro transport, sport or whatever), perhaps an equally balanced public saftey campaign out to be launched - one which addresses the sh*tty atitude of some people in cars, and the frustraing lack of engagement with road rules by some people on bikes.

I was nearly hit by three separate cars in relatively quick succession recently, but often feel no more or less safe than usual when out on the road. For me, the benefit of exercising my body and my rights is more important than the apparent risk of idiots in cars. But, by ****, there are a lot of idiots in cars....

Had someone fully open a car door on me this morning meaning I had to swerve into the middle of the lane. Luckily there was no car behind me. All the idiot could do was yell "jesus"

A bit further on I was cycling in the left hand lane about 5 feet out from the kerb. A girl on the pavement was walking in the same direction I was cycling, about 20 feet ahead of me. As I approached her she stepped off the pavement without looking, and continued across the lane I was in, again paying no attention as she was constantly looking left. Had to swerve at the last minute to avoid her.

I only ride road for "pleasure" and get to stay off busy roads so don't feel in danger - or hardly ever

But every day I drive along a stretch of A-road & see cyclists at risk. Makes me wince, esp in winter when it's darkish at peak times.

Worht noting that the road's not really wide enough for 2 cars & a bike, let along car/lorry/bike and this of course is the source of danger. It's also semi-rural, floods quite a lot at the edges and has crappy ill-defined margins.

When the occasional considerate driver waits for a decent passing place to get round a bike, they tend to generate a queue of about 30 vehicles all travelling at bike pace. I can see why this might wind up drivers but there is no realistic alternative route if you have to cycle to work. I wouldn't dare ride it.

I gave over riding/racing on the roads because I was getting knocked off too often. I also saw too many get killed in "accidents". In one case there was a witness who saw a lorry deliberatley swerve into, and kill a cyclist. His evidence was discounted because he too was a cyclist, and so was considered to be biased!

GnarGnar - no way! The day we start saying this is the start of the process that will end up with cyclists being banned from the roads.
From where I live there is no possible route that I could take that would be entirely cycle lane. How do I get to work then? Do I just sack the 45 people that work for me?

Going back to th OP - apart from the 15 hours last summer when everyone loved cyclists I now find that everyday I get drivers overtaking without giving me any room at all, overtaking and turning in across me, pulling across the road to deliberately scare me, just pulling out from side roads without looking, the list goes on and on.

The days when cars and bikes could share the roads are long gone. Cyclists NEED cycle lanes jsut to be safe, it's as simple as that.

you are missing the point, all vehicles have a duty to share the road with other road users, i dont agree with marginalising bikes, sure cycle paths should be available and funding should be there to improve and expand them but those who choose to cycle on the road have the right to be treated with repect by other road users

I am totally pro cycling here, dont get me wrong - but we are totally unprotected. We are largely incapabale of accelerating / keeping pace with traffic, at times we are difficult to see, and worst of all we pose no threat to other road users. When driving a car you only feel "threatened" for want of a better word by other cars, lorries etc. A cyclist or a pedestrian represents an obstacle whereas another vehicle represents danger.

Im not saying we should be stuck to meandering scenic cycle paths, Im saying there should be cycle paths designed and factored into town and road planning to allow bikes to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible.

On the daily commute just avoiding getting knocked off is a fairly regular occurrence, at least a couple of times each way, but I've yet to feel as though my life was in danger. But then again if I was a bit of a drama queen maybe I would view things differently.

Generally people in cars are angry, they don’t want to give up their space and they want to get to where they’re going faster than the next person. Unfortunately that’s the way the roads are now, no amount of campaigns will change that. On my commute I also have lots of occasions where drivers are very courteous to me, which I always thank them for.

Non-commuting rides are all done on coutry roads and I've never had a near death experience yet.

What gets me (in the centre of Manc coming out)- a car will accelerate and cut back infront just to slam on his brakes 10m's later at the end of the queue of cars. You then sail by... why do they do that? 'Beat' the cyclist - so narrow-minded?!

I rarely, if ever, feel my life is in danger, but I get cut up, pushed into a gutter, shouted at by twunts for no reason, etc, often. I guess after a while you learn to cycle defensively and anticipate how and where drivers are likely to do bad things. Touch wood I've only been knocked off once, and it was partly my fault (frozen dynamo and dodgy brakes). I wonder what the demographics of this are? Would be interesting to see what the geographic spread of cycling safety is, e.g. north vs south (or south east vs everywhere else?), urban, suburban and countryside...

It seems to go from one extreme to another, after the Olympics, there was noticeable softening of attitude towards cyclist on the road.

Now its back to how it used to be, with your eyes on the road and your ears listening to what is going on behind you.

Only last week I had a 4x4 pull out on me from a side road, just smiled at me as if to say, what are you going to do about it!

As mentioned above, the don't care, I am in a hurry, get out of my way brigade is on the increase.

To be fair, the standard of cyclist I see riding on the road also seem to be getting worse too [I have been cycling to work daily for the last 6 odd years on, give or take, the same route] I have noticed more people cycling now than ever before.

I have lost count of the number of rlj, cyclist without lights at night, cycling on the wrong side of the roads, on the pavements, the list is endless.

If I was going to commute by bike I'd rig up a light bar to fit across the back of the thing. I'd extend it about a foot on nearside and 2ft on the offside & stick one of those bright leds on either end - whether dark or not

I think a lot of cyclists over estimate how visibale they actually are. Stand at the side of a busy road at night and try and spot cyclists as far away as possible, its pretty hard to spot some, especially those with only 'commuting lights' and your not even driving at the same time!

I commute every day, about 3 miles of it is through a small but busy town, i feel pretty safe but there are times when idiots overtake you on a corner or somthing and you just have to shake your head and watch them roar off.